Woman avoids jail after sex with boy

Daniel Tepfer

Updated 10:51 pm, Friday, January 11, 2013

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A 22-year-old Maine woman, who had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old Monroe boy she met while playing the online video game was given a suspended sentence on Friday, Jan. 11. On the conviction of risk of injury to a minor, the judge sentenced Grant to a 5-year suspended term followed by 10 years probation. He also ordered her to register as a sex offender and to make a $200 donation to the Center for Children and Families. less

A 22-year-old Maine woman, who had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old Monroe boy she met while playing the online video game was given a suspended sentence on Friday, Jan. 11. On the conviction of risk of ... more

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Cassandra Grant.

Cassandra Grant.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Woman avoids jail after sex with boy

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BRIDGEPORT -- A 22-year-old Maine woman, who had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old Monroe boy she met while playing the online video game "Call of Duty," was given a suspended sentence Friday.

"These laws are on the books to protect children, and these types of incidents can have a negative effect on them as they get older," Judge Robert Devlin told Cassandra Grant, as she stood beside her lawyer in state Superior Court. "But I'm confident this sentence is the appropriate one to impose."

On the conviction of risk of injury to a minor, the judge sentenced Grant to a five-year suspended term, followed by 10 years of probation.

He also ordered her to register as a sex offender and to make a $200 donation to the Center for Children and Families.

During the short hearing, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Cornelius Kelly told the judge that the boy's family did not want Grant to go to prison.

"She had cooperated with police and admitted her guilt," Kelly said.

Grant's lawyer, James Ruane, told the judge that his client worked two jobs while going to college and lost her job with a bank in Maine as a result of her arrest.

She is now a shift manager at Domino's Pizza in Rockland, Maine.

"This was an isolated incident in my client's life," Ruane said later. "She is really a good person."

Grant and the boy met in March 201l when the boy added her as a friend while the two of them were playing the video game online. Police said the two talked, instant-messaged and played games daily.

Police said the boy later told them he felt he and Grant had the "same feelings about life in general." He said he learned right away she was 22 and he told her he was 14.

On March 24, 2011, the boy told Grant he wanted to be her boyfriend and she agreed, police said.

But the two didn't actually meet until Dec. 18, 2011, when police said Grant checked into a motel in Danbury.

The following day, police said the boy lied to his parents about visiting a friend and instead walked to the end of his street, where Grant picked him up. They then went back to her motel room where they had sex, police said.

The boy subsequently brought Grant home to meet his parents. He introduced her as a 16-year-old friend. Following dinner with his parents, police said Grant and the boy had sex in his bedroom. The boy's father later drove Grant back to her motel room.

The next day, police said the boy told his parents, who were leaving for work, he was feeling too ill to go to school. Instead, police said he dressed up in a suit and waited for Grant to arrive.

After having sex, Grant and the boy talked of "plans together for later in life," police said.

But the boy's older sister became suspicious of the relationship and, after checking, found out Grant's real age, police said. She then told her parents, who called police.

Police said when they confronted Grant, who at that time was working at a bank in Thomaston, Maine, she admitted having sex with the boy and was expecting to be visited by police.